Allegations of voter fraud in Jim Wells, Brooks counties

ALICE - There are about 325 supercentenarians in the country and 79th District Attorney Armando Barrera finds it hard to believe 18 of them voted in the Brooks County primary in May.

In a petition to contest the election filed Friday, Barrera lists 18 voters who were all born on either Jan. 1, 1900, or Jan. 1, 1901, making each of them more than 110 years old.

"Can you believe it?" Barrera said. "Maybe they've found the fountain of youth."

Armando and Homero Cruz are two men listed in the petition. According to Barrera, the two were both born on Jan. 1, 1900 and they both live at the same address in Falfurrias.

The 79th District governs both Jim Wells and Brooks counties. Barrera lost the May 29 election by 19 votes after a recount. The final tally put challenger Carlos Omar Garcia at 3,809 and Barrera at 3,790.

The petition alleges voter misconduct and fraud.

"There were so many violations of the election code in Jim Wells and Brooks County, it makes you wonder if they've even read it," Barrera said.

Garcia could not be reached for comment Friday.

Pearlie Jo Valadez, Jim Wells County elections administrator, declined to comment, and Alan Hernandez, Brooks County elections administrator, could not be reached for comment.

In Jim Wells County, Barrera said there was confusion over mail-in ballots sent out by the elections administrator. First, he said 218 mail-in ballots were sent to voters who did not request them for the 2012 election, and 214 were returned. Barrera said Valadez told him those people had requested ballots in previous elections.

He also said mail-in ballots originally sent out excluded Jesusa Sanchez-Vera, county attorney, from the ballots. Though she was unopposed, her name still must be on the ballot. Corrected ballots were sent to mail-in voters, but they did not state "replacement" or "corrected" on them. Election code states that the mailed envelope should note that a corrected ballot is provided.

The issue is further complicated because several people turned in the original ballot without the county attorney's name. Those names could not be read by the counting machines, Barrera said, so they were invalid. The ballots were duplicated onto valid ballots, which is legal. However, election code states that duplicated ballots should be labeled and list the serial number of the original ballot.

Barrera said at the recount, he was told the ballots that were not folded were the duplicated ballots. Some of those ballots had a vote for Sanchez-Vera on them, Barrera said. Had they been duplicated from the original ballot, it would have been impossible for the voter to mark her name because it was left off, he added.

"This has been an eye-opener because these people are supposed to understand the election code," Barrera said.

It's not the first time an election in Jim Wells County has been contested. In 2008, a district judge ordered new elections in two races after then-Alice Mayor Juan Rodriguez said mail-in ballots were improperly used by paid vote canvassers to boost votes for challenger Guadalupe Martinez.